Show A REMEDY DEMANDED THE denial of the writ of habeas corpus in the ewe case of peter barton is one of those legal technicalities which appear very attenuated to common minds it is admitted that the applicant is illegally deprived of his liberty the decision of the supreme court of the united states establishes that fact but the court does not see its way clear to release him from unlawful imprisonment the difficulty all turns upon the point that it does not appear in the record of the particular ewe case in which he unlawfully was wai sentenced sentence d that he had been previously convicted of an offense which covered the one then at bar the record of the courts court however on the same page shows this previous conviction and the defendant had no counsel and wu was not anstr instructed acted by the court that he could plead the former conviction as a bar to the new proceedings he plead guilty to an invalid indictment the whole proceedings were therefore invalid I 1 if the indictment was contrary to law then it would appear the trial the se sentence stence and everything that grew out of the indictment were also contrary to law and so void from the beginning we do not know that this view of the matter is dissented from by the counsel for the government or by the judges upon the bench but they contend for the letter of judi judicial elal rules and decline to waive a technicality nica lity to give room for the claims of justice perhaps this is right we will not rail at the ruling tech ni cali ties may be of paramount importance the liberty of ac a citizen may be of low less moment than legal red tape but as a a wrong manifestly exists there ought to be some gome means of righting it this is the way common sense people will look at the matter and w we are inclined to view it in the same light it appears from the decision in this case which most likely will similarly affect others that there is no judicial remedy for the manifest injustice now being suffered by several wrongly imprisoned gentlemen their detention depends upon a technicality what is the way out it seems to be in the exercise exer clee of executive clemency the president can pardon the men illegally incarcerated will he do sol the question cannot be answered until an appeal to him has been made this we think should be done immediately med lately it would be a just and graceful act for the prosecuting officer to loin join with counsel for the prisoners in an application for the presidential pardon if the judges would add their signatures to the ap it would show that their dec decision isloa was not based on any desire to inflict punishment unjustified by law nor wish to proceed harshly harsh y against one class of offenders but that it p proceeded ro from legal causes and respect for judicial rules which could not in their judgment be set aside one thing is clear peter barton and some others in a similar position are unjustly imprisoned and therefore they ought to be set at liberty A defendant cannot in law take advantage of his own wrong neither should the prosecution be able to do the same thing if habeas corpus is not ape the p roper proper remedy and there is no other within the power of the judiciary then the arm of the executive ought to be stretched out to do justice that right may be vindicated and respect for authority may be maintained |